Michigan

Cleary's back on track

As MLive.com's own Ansar Khan notes, Red Wings forward Dan Cleary has gotten his production back on track, and may earn some power play minutes from coach Mike Babcock because of his resurgence. The Detroit Free Press's Helene St. James also profiled Cleary's resurgence, noting that his two assists on Saturday came in part from his promotion to the Wings' top line:

December 8, Detroit Free Press: Since returning from an eye injury five games ago he's racked up six points, relishing the opportunity to play alongside [Marian] Hossa and [Pavel] Datsyuk while their usual left winger, Tomas Holmstrom, battled a sore back.

"I've felt well each game and that's a good sign for me," Cleary said. "Anytime you can get your confidence going offensively it's good, but I was only really worried about my legs being strong and being able to do things I have to do. It's not very hard to play with Pav and Hoss, that's for sure."

Cleary started the game with Jiri Hudler and Valtteri Filppula, but finished it with Hossa and Datsyuk.

"We needed to get something going," coach Mike Babcock said, "so I put Cleary there and I thought he did a good job. He's had himself a couple real good nights here. It'll be a real battle for him and (Johan Franzen) and Homer for the net-front job on the power play, because if Cleary is going to score we might as well have him there."

Cleary has no problem with playing on the third line, however--and there's no doubt that his return has allowed Valtteri Filppula to get his offensive game on track:

Cleary has played in only 18 of 26 games because of a scratch in his left eye that at one point reduced his vision to 20/200. He'll likely continue to be on the third line, because the Holmstrom-Datsyuk-Hossa combination has been the Wings' best line all season, and the second line has Henrik Zetterberg with Johan Franzen and Mikael Samuelsson. Then again, there are worse fates than being on a line with Filppula and Hudler.

"It doesn't really matter to me where I play, they're good players either which way you look at it," Cleary said. "I just need to take advantage of the opportunity."